Farmers celebrate gasification win

SYDNEY (AAP) - July 08 - A farmer whose cows were contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals is relieved the Queensland government is pulling the pin on an underground coal gasification (UCG) project.
Cougar Energy's UCG activities near Kingaroy in southern Queensland were suspended about a year ago after they contaminated groundwater with benzene, a known carcinogen, and the toxic chemical toluene.
The Queensland government ordered Cougar to shut down its trial on Thursday and is taking the company to court over environmental breaches.
Cougar may appeal the decision.
Cattle farmer Damien O'Sullivan, whose paddock is parallel to the site, says the shutdown is a relief because he no longer has to worry about the health of his cattle.
"All these gases (coming from the plant) are heavier than air and have settled on the grass and have been digested by my cattle," Mr O'Sullivan told AAP.
"That's my supposition - we've been given no explanation.
"This is what happens after three or four days of burning. Imagine the damage if the trial was allowed to go on for a long period."
Mr O'Sullivan said Biosecurity Queensland's tests on five of his cows found traces of benzene and toluene last year.
Further testing later found no traces of the chemicals and Mr O'Sullivan said as far as he could tell there had been no long-term side-effects but he won't rest until the site was totally cleaned up.
"All the infrastructure is still there," he said.
"We want to see it removed, the site cleaned up and rehabilitated and returned to the prime cropping land that it used to be."
Department of Environment and Resource Management acting director-general Terry Wall said the company would be forced to rehabilitate the area, including decontaminating aquifers, and was facing court action over its activities.
When Mr Wall was asked if authorities would ever again contemplate allowing Cougar to operate in Queensland, he told the ABC: "Certainly not in respect of underground coal gasification."
The department has issued Cougar Energy with a summons accusing it of breaching operating permits by contaminating the site and failing to promptly notify authorities.
Mr Wall said it was up to individual landholders to decide if they would pursue compensation for any perceived negative effect on their properties.
Cougar Energy spokesman Len Walker says the company is yet to decide if it will appeal against the government's shutdown.
Independent MP Dorothy Pratt, who represents the south Burnett region where the Kingaroy trial operated, said the case should serve as a warning to other communities near UCG trial sites.
Two others are being operated in Queensland, using new technology to convert coal to gas using heat and chemicals.
Ms Pratt said new mining technologies should not be allowed in prime agricultural areas like the one at Kingaroy because the risks were simply too high.
"I don't believe, as yet, the technology is foolproof," she told the ABC.
"There's never any guarantee. You can't give a 100 per cent guarantee that no contamination will occur and everything can be put back in place.
"Where there's good agricultural land these sorts of practices should never be undertaken."
Friends of the Earth spokesman Drew Hutton, who campaigned against the Cougar trial, said the Queensland government must ensure greater oversight of such operations.
"The whole history over the last 20 years has been of the mining industry self-regulating," Mr Hutton said.
He said communities around the other two UCG sites, at Chinchilla and Kogan, needed to follow Kingaroy's example and "kick up a fuss".